4. Invest in a great pair of boots.

“They’re actually my motorcycle boots. I don’t ride a motorcycle anymore because I almost got killed,” he said.

After 45 years of riding, Macomber got into a horrific accident. “I’m titanium on my right side, from the hip down … I’m done,” he said. “My wife doesn’t deserve another call like that.”

When he woke up in the hospital, “heavily drugged” with anesthesia, he was touched to find friends and family watching over him.

“One of the first things people came and asked me was, ‘Will you still be able to do Santa this year?’ ”

He said goodbye to his totaled Harley and kept the boots.

5. You don’t need a ‘personal brand’ when you have passion.

Brands and labels are for toys, not people. A good kid can be naughty, and a naughty one can learn to be nice.

(And some people can be both. “I’m gonna tell you right now,” Santa quipped to a few grown-ups on the plaza the night of the El Cajon parade, “naughty girls get Jaguars.”)

So Macomber may make a great Santa Claus, but here’s a little secret: He also makes amazing port.

“For Thanksgiving Day, I made chocolate-orange port,” he said. He’s also made a cabernet franc ice wine, with grapes picked in Niagara at minus 13 degrees and shipped to his home in El Cajon. Might as well be the North Pole, it came out that yummy, he said.

A Harley-riding, port-making Santa? Who’d have thought?

Some people say Macomber lacks credentials because he only has a mustache. (Yes, the beard is fake.) “They had a convention here last year. For bearded Santas only. I said, ‘No, no, I don’t have one.’ They said, ‘You can’t come.’ ”

Guess what? They had their meeting; he didn’t give it a second thought — and now he’s still Santa.

The take-away? You can be guided by conventional labels. “I’m Santa, so I have to grow a beard,” or “I’m a mom, so I have to bake 36 cupcakes because that’s what moms do.” Or you could make your own label.

6. Remember to thank those who enrich your life.

Who knows, you might be just as successful or awesome without them.

But you probably wouldn’t be as happy.

When he’s not Santa, Macomber has a blast with his wife, Jane. They contribute to charity events themed around civic pride, rock music, dancing, wine.

He got married in a kilt.

A few weeks ago, he took his wife and her friends to a tea party at Jamul Haven, for “sandwiches and desserts, fresh and handmade there,” he said. “We had just a delightful time.”

So what’s on Santa’s wish list this Christmas?

“The end of the fiscal cliff,” he proclaimed. But he’ll settle for good health and more time with his loved ones. “Just another great year. Happiness with my wife, family. All my friends. A repeat of last year.”